First appearing in the Pinto back in the early 1970s, few could have guessed that the Ford steering rack would become the ubiquitous choice of hot rodders and kit car builders around the world. The bottom line is that rack and pinion steering offers far greater precision than the recirculating ball systems popular at the time, and the Ford steering rack was being mass produced for Pinto applications, bringing the price down. In fact, the Ford steering rack is still widely used on racing vehicles today thanks to its light weight, low price, and solid handling characteristics. Of course, subsequent Ford vehicles have used a wide variety of different Ford steering rack configurations. After all, you wouldn't want the Ford steering rack in your Taurus to give you the same road feel as the Ford steering rack in your Mustang. Differences in the valves inside the Ford steering rack allow it to create a wide variation in 'feel' and precision. That's how a Ford steering rack for a Mustang can be incredibly tight, ready to respond to your every move, while the Ford steering rack in a Crown Victoria can be engineered to give the light, full-size feel that large car buyers prefer. The Ford steering rack also has significantly fewer parts than a conventional parallelogram steering setup, so there's less to wear out over time. On the other hand, most of the steering components are contained within the Ford steering rack itself, so when something does wear out the entire Ford steering rack generally has to be replaced, rather than just an idler arm or a center link. Suspension and steering parts all work together, though, so replacing your Ford steering rack at the first sign of significant trouble means you get a brand new or remanufactured steering system. Afterward, you shouldn't have to worry about your Ford steering rack or any of the other components for a long time to come.